said. “It's okay. With that head wound he was going to be a vegetable anyway. You are on your own. You noted in your repairs that the same micrometeorite that killed your coxswain also took out the navigation system and the hypernode. Paris, CM1 Glass Four-Three-Eight-Two.”
“CM1 Glass Four-Three-Eight-Two, Paris.”
“Notional emergency in shuttle Two-Niner,” Glass said. “Repeat, notional. Hypernode and navigation inoperable. Coxswain terminated. Control transferred to EA Parker.”
“Confirm notional emergency,” Paris responded. “Good luck, Parker.”
Parker was confused. With the hypercom out she couldn't even call to ask Hartwell what she was supposed to do. She had done the engineering side, except for the “destroyed” hypercom. But she didn't have any orders and couldn't recall a procedure that fit.
“Am I supposed to fly back?” she asked.
“You're talking to a dead man,” Glass said, sitting up. “What you do, now, is up to you entirely. You have a dead person and the bird.”
“Well, I could always discharge the dead weight,” Dana said. “Save some fuel.”
“Try it, Danno.”
Dana finally realize that Glass just wasn't going to give her any orders. She'd been following orders for so long she wasn't used to making her own decisions.
“Okay,” she said, aloud. “Boat's damaged. Coxswain dead. The only smart choice is to head to the nearest help. Which is . . .”
The navigational system wasn't operating. She could probably tinker around the lock-out but that wasn't what the test was looking for.
“Troy, Troy,” she muttered. “Where is Troy?”
She had visual systems. But they had spent so much time under power that even the massive nine kilometer space station had disappeared. Not only was it probably a dot, she wasn't sure which direction it was from their current position. She'd been paying attention to engineering, not nav. All there was deep space all around her.
“Oh . . . crap,” she muttered. Without nav she had no real idea where she was. “Okay, okay, I can figure this out . . .”
She oriented the ship towards the sun and started hunting. The gate stayed in a location between Earth and Mars, in line with Earth. It wasn't actually in a stable orbit but it had gravitic controls to keep it in place. The gate was ten kilometers across but the ring was only a hundred meters wide. It might be hard to spot.
Troy was near the gate. Near not at. It moved around due to the L point gravitational issues. If she could orient to the gate, she might be able to spot the space globe. If worse came to worse, she had enough fuel to make it to Earth. But she figured she'd probably get reamed out if she took the Myrm back to McKinley Base.
She found the sun. After a while she managed to find earth. Line those two up and she'd be between Earth and the gate. Spin around.
But at their distance, the width of the sun left enough wiggle room that even by turning the ship around and orienting it carefully she still couldn't spot Troy or the gate.
“Crap,” she muttered.
“Now you know why they call it the big Dark,” Glass said. “Hartwell finally gave up on this one.”
“I know he doesn't like the Dark,” Dana said, glad the CM was at least willing to talk.
“I will give you exactly one hint,” Glass said. “You are looking the wrong way.”
“There are three hundred and sixty other degrees to look,” Dana said. “In plane and in vertical. That's one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred degrees to search.”
“Didn't say it was easy,” Glass replied.
Looking the wrong way. She had assumed when Glass headed out from the Troy he had headed towards earth. But they had kept a more or less straight initial vector from the door. And the door was oriented away from the gate, “up” in the plane of ecliptic.
She oriented to the sun again then rotated the boat so that the sun was “up” from her position. Then she started scanning around.
It was the gate
“CM1 Glass Four-Three-Eight-Two, Paris.”
“Notional emergency in shuttle Two-Niner,” Glass said. “Repeat, notional. Hypernode and navigation inoperable. Coxswain terminated. Control transferred to EA Parker.”
“Confirm notional emergency,” Paris responded. “Good luck, Parker.”
Parker was confused. With the hypercom out she couldn't even call to ask Hartwell what she was supposed to do. She had done the engineering side, except for the “destroyed” hypercom. But she didn't have any orders and couldn't recall a procedure that fit.
“Am I supposed to fly back?” she asked.
“You're talking to a dead man,” Glass said, sitting up. “What you do, now, is up to you entirely. You have a dead person and the bird.”
“Well, I could always discharge the dead weight,” Dana said. “Save some fuel.”
“Try it, Danno.”
Dana finally realize that Glass just wasn't going to give her any orders. She'd been following orders for so long she wasn't used to making her own decisions.
“Okay,” she said, aloud. “Boat's damaged. Coxswain dead. The only smart choice is to head to the nearest help. Which is . . .”
The navigational system wasn't operating. She could probably tinker around the lock-out but that wasn't what the test was looking for.
“Troy, Troy,” she muttered. “Where is Troy?”
She had visual systems. But they had spent so much time under power that even the massive nine kilometer space station had disappeared. Not only was it probably a dot, she wasn't sure which direction it was from their current position. She'd been paying attention to engineering, not nav. All there was deep space all around her.
“Oh . . . crap,” she muttered. Without nav she had no real idea where she was. “Okay, okay, I can figure this out . . .”
She oriented the ship towards the sun and started hunting. The gate stayed in a location between Earth and Mars, in line with Earth. It wasn't actually in a stable orbit but it had gravitic controls to keep it in place. The gate was ten kilometers across but the ring was only a hundred meters wide. It might be hard to spot.
Troy was near the gate. Near not at. It moved around due to the L point gravitational issues. If she could orient to the gate, she might be able to spot the space globe. If worse came to worse, she had enough fuel to make it to Earth. But she figured she'd probably get reamed out if she took the Myrm back to McKinley Base.
She found the sun. After a while she managed to find earth. Line those two up and she'd be between Earth and the gate. Spin around.
But at their distance, the width of the sun left enough wiggle room that even by turning the ship around and orienting it carefully she still couldn't spot Troy or the gate.
“Crap,” she muttered.
“Now you know why they call it the big Dark,” Glass said. “Hartwell finally gave up on this one.”
“I know he doesn't like the Dark,” Dana said, glad the CM was at least willing to talk.
“I will give you exactly one hint,” Glass said. “You are looking the wrong way.”
“There are three hundred and sixty other degrees to look,” Dana said. “In plane and in vertical. That's one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred degrees to search.”
“Didn't say it was easy,” Glass replied.
Looking the wrong way. She had assumed when Glass headed out from the Troy he had headed towards earth. But they had kept a more or less straight initial vector from the door. And the door was oriented away from the gate, “up” in the plane of ecliptic.
She oriented to the sun again then rotated the boat so that the sun was “up” from her position. Then she started scanning around.
It was the gate
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